Society & Culture

Psychotherapist Eileen Simpson grew up as an orphan; her mother died from tuberculosis. As a young adult, she moved to Greenwich Village and married the poet John Berryman. Writing came to her later in life, after she split up with the renowned poet. Her new book is called Orphans: Real and Imaginary.

New Yorker fashion reporter Kennedy Fraser has a new book of her work for the magazine, called Scenes from the Fashionable World.

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg argues that the increasingly insular and unintelligible vocabulary of businesses stems from a growing adherence to corporate culture.

Irwin Blye is a private investigator who has coauthored a book about his trade. He joins Fresh Air to talk about what his day-to-day work looks like--in contrast to the detectives of novels and films.

Former New York Times reporter Joyce Maynard moved to New Hampshire to start a family, where she started her Domestic Affairs column, which examines her new life as a writer and mother. A book of the same name has just been published.

Sam Charters is a white northerner who studies the history black southern music. He moved to Louisiana to learn about forgotten jazz players and make field recordings of unknown blues musicians.

As a teenager at the beginning of her folk career, Joan Baez played mostly sad, traditional songs. She later became an icon to teenage girls in the 1960s, played with Bob Dylan, and pursued political activism.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg unpacks worries about different kinds of cultural and technical illiteracy--which he believes could more accurately be described as ignorance. Nunberg says we should be more concerned with the often overlooked problem of functional illiteracy.

Nien Cheng and her husband were educated abroad and lived a comfortable, bourgeois life before China's Cultural Revolution. Though Cheng faced persecution, interrogation, and imprisonment, she was mostly able to maintain her lifestyle--and her loyalty to her country. She now lives in Washington, D.C.

Television critic David Bianculli reviews the new A&E miniseries The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, which he says surprises at every turn with its tales of sex and betrayal.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg reviews the current Broadway production of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, which stars Peter O'Toole, who, says Nunberg, turns the play from a fairy tale into a farce.

Book critic John Leonard says the memoir section of Eileen Simpson's new hybrid book, about her own experiences as an orphan, is compelling and insightful; her later meditations on the idea of orphanhood are less successful.

John Schlesinger's new movie The Believers leans on racist ideas of African religion to create an uncomfortable cinematic experience based on human sacrifice.

Village Voice style editor Mary Peacock considers the role women's magazines play in shaping women's fashion. She talks to Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the latest trends.

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg considers which phrases and slang from the 1960s endured, and which ones sound dated today.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews a new show that rebroadcasts the human interest stories journalist Charles Kuralt produced for the CBS Evening News.

Playwrights William M. Hoffman and Larry Kramer are gay men whose recent work has grappled with the effect of AIDS on their communities. They share their frustrations with the inaction both amongst government agencies and gay people themselves to meaningfully address the epidemic.

Film critic Stephen Schiff thinks Brian de Palma's gangster movie showcases both the director's technical prowess and weak character development. Despite its flaws, the film is still enjoyable.

After decades in Lebanon, missionary Ben Weir was kidnapped by a jihadi group. His wife, Carol Weir, worked tirelessly to secure his release. They've cowritten a memoir about the ordeal, called Hostage Bound, Hostage Free.

Theater critic Richard Gilman was born into a Jewish family, later joined the Catholic Church, and now identifies as an atheist. In his new memoir, he describes how restrictive teachings on sexuality drove him away form organized religion.